Saturday, April 13, 2024

Philip John Lewin - Diamond Love And Other Realities (1976)



don't hang around, enjoy good music!
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"I like this to a degree, although I'm not really sure why. Male vocalist is atrocious (female vocalist is better though - well, at least she sure can sing). The tranquil, vaguely jazzy musical backing could be just as well described as muzak. Yet it all somehow fits in with those weird US private press LP's like The Kaplan Brothers, Damon - Song of a Gipsy, etc. It's a similar mindset.

The whole thing has a vaguely "epic" feel to it though, and it's a warm, cozy listen, with a subdued late night feel to it. (I was about to say that the music sometimes hits a kind of Aja vibe, but this came out before Aja, so..)

Imagine the kind of people (couples, especially) who make lounge records. Now imagine the slightly "weirdo", slightly more literate take on that. That's the kind of vibe I get from this, yet the record itself is kind of pleasant, and has some kind of elusive atmosphere to it, something.

a-side here is pretty beastly. late-nite loungey 70s SSW fare with a jazzy/funky flare done to perfection. in some strange time-space filter it comes out sounding vividly real vs. dated/cheesy. he lets the tracks really drift... i haven't heard alot of stuff like this. can't quite tell yet how i feel about the more trad folkier stuff side 2... A Friend of Mine / Hanging Around Waiting are both shorter songs in a Dylan-ish angry folk mold and kinda of break the spell you're under after the stoney looseness that leads up to it. he gets back to it on "Other Realities" and "Drummers Lament" and even though the re-connect isn't quite there, all over its a pretty spooky record. the guy is definitely a head, and definitely a weird cat and i really dig where he took this ethereal midnight spaced lounge jazz stuff. like Justen O'Brien + Jake it quickly becomes a much heavier record than you had initially imagined... toni, the gal vocalist is fabulously cool and lets notes go flat and plays it stoned natural realness. like tripping with your middle aged neighbor after he's been through a divorce. mature and sensitive but still pretty weird."

3.5/5 (35) RYM

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/philip-john-lewin/diamond-love-and-other-realities

good show

10:48 PM

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